The best new blues albums you can buy this month

Joe Bonamassa - Live At The Greek Theatre

Like death and taxes – albeit more enjoyable than either – there’s a relentless inevitability about Joe Bonamassa’s output that means Live At The Greek Theatre risks being greeted with shrugged shoulders. To his credit, the blues man is perhaps wary of saturation, and here he arrives armed with a tantalising premise: saluting the ‘three Kings’ (that’s Albert, Freddie and BB) live in Los Angeles. The man has some brass neck, of course. But if last year’s Muddy Wolf showed Bonamassa could ape the vocal titans, then this 22-song concert proves he’s also a world-class guitarist.

Freddie could take no issue with horn-plumpened opener See See Baby and a screaming Going Down. The irascible Albert might even tolerate the dramatic chunking of Cadillac Assembly Line. But you sense it’s BB (who died two months before the tour began) who is the key touchstone, with Bonamassa smashing an exuberant Let The Good Times Roll and giving it his best one-note on The Thrill Is Gone. In the face of such mastery, apathy melts into admiration. (9/10)